Maps that made Cabmen honest
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The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.www.imcos.org
By The Map Collector
Published on 1 December 1979
by Ralph Hyde
It was said that among cab men the name of Edward Mogg was better known than beloved. From 1844 this mapmaker published a steady stream of guides and London maps which enabled travellers in London to discover where they were and whether they had been over-charged getting there.
It was said that among cab men the name of Edward Mogg was better known than beloved. From 1844 this mapmaker published a steady stream of guides and London maps which enabled travellers in London to discover where they were and whether they had been over-charged getting there.
By Ralph Hyde
It was said that among cab men the name of Edward Mogg was better known than beloved. From 1844 this mapmaker published a steady stream of guides and London maps which enabled travellers in London to discover where they were and whether they had been over-charged getting there. Small wonder Thomas Hood was so thankful to have his:
'What is this world, with London in its lap?
Mogg's map.
With Greenwich and its Isle of Dogs
This map of Mogg's.'
Upright Victorians were outraged by the dishonesty of cabmen in their era. Not surprisingly, it was they who hit upon the most ingenious cartographical solutions. But the problem was not a new one, and nor were the attempts to solve it cartographically. Hackney coaches had been introduced into the narrow streets of pre-Fire London in the 17th-century. In 1720 Henry Overton advertised in the Daily Courant 'A New and Correct Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, &c. including the new Buildings now finished' on which appeared tables giving the rates of the hackney coachmen and watermen, 'very necessary for Persons who are often imposed on by these Fellows.' Overton's rivals followed suit issuing new maps with coachmen and watermen's rates (e.g. Joseph Smith, 1724), or squeezing in tables of fares on their existing plates (e .g. Thomas Bowles, 1723 and Thomas Taylor, 1720). Darton & Harvey in 1797 made room for upwards of 200 hackney coach fares on their 'New Pocket Map of London', and John Cary in 1782 upwards of 350 on his 'London, Westminster and Southwark Accurately Delineated.' The latter map had to be revised in 1785 to accommodate new fares just introduced by Act of Parliament.
In the 1890's W.J. Gordon recorded that out of 15,000 cabmen plying for hire in London approximately 2,000 were annually convicted for drunkeness, cruelty, wilful misbehaviour, loitering, obstruction, stopping on the wrong side of the road, leaving their cabs unattended, etc. 'Gentlemen in this class', observed Max Slesinger earlier, 'are not generally flattering in their expressions or conciliatory in their arguments, and the cheapest way of terminating a dispute is to pay and have done with the man.'
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
The cabriolet de place - 'cab' for short - was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth-century. At first it carried two people only, driver and passenger sitting side by side. Later the driver was relegated to a seat built on the off-side between the body of the vehicle and the wheel. In 1834 Joseph Aloysius Hansom, founder of the Builder magazine and the architect of Birmingham old Town Hall, patented a cab so designed that the driver sat on top. Curiously, Hansom's name became associated with a superior version of it for which he was not responsible. This was the invention of John Chapman, proprietor of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, who placed the driver's seat at the back.
Chapman's cab was instantly popular. Not so its driver. Readers of Dickens' Pick wick Papers will recall the fuss Mr and Mrs Raddle and Mrs Cluppings became embroiled in when calling upon friends in Goswell Street. In the first place their driver was cruel. ('The horse being troubled with a fly on his nose, the cabman humanely employed his leisure in lashing him on the head on the counter¬irritation principle.') In the second place they were deposited at the wrong door. In the third place the man was dishonest and Mr and Mrs Raddle were overcharged. 'Is there no legal scale of fares?' asked Max Schlesinger innocently in Saunterings in London. 'Of course there is', he himself replied, 'eight pence per mile. But who can tell how many miles he has gone in a cab?'
Mogg'scab-fare map, with extensions to the west and south, as issued in the 1870's. The Mogg family had been issuing maps at least since 1803 and had a special interest in maps for travellers. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
To rescue Mr and Mrs Raddle, Max Schlesinger, and tens of thousands like them F.G. Harding of 24 Cornhill in 1833 published The Arbitrator or Metropolitan Distance Map.' This gave distances in each street and square in miles and yards, provided tables of distances, and explained passengers' rights. In a note the publisher advertised that he would correctly compute disputed distances, wagers, and unmeasured ground: 'Any error discovered in this Map, or distance disputed, shall be remeasured, free of expense if found incorrect; but if otherwise, a charge of half-a-crown per mile will be made to the party requiring the same.' An improved version of the map was published by M.A. Leigh in the following year. On this, half mile measurements were indicated by red spots from east to west, and by blue spots from south to north. Later Leigh issued the map as a little booklet. The text in this was re-set as pages, the map itself forming an appendage.
It was said that among cab men the name of Edward Mogg was better known than beloved. From 1844 this mapmaker published a steady stream of guides and London maps which enabled travellers in London to discover where they were and whether they had been over-charged getting there. Small wonder Thomas Hood was so thankful to have his:
'What is this world, with London in its lap?
Mogg's map.
With Greenwich and its Isle of Dogs
This map of Mogg's.'
Upright Victorians were outraged by the dishonesty of cabmen in their era. Not surprisingly, it was they who hit upon the most ingenious cartographical solutions. But the problem was not a new one, and nor were the attempts to solve it cartographically. Hackney coaches had been introduced into the narrow streets of pre-Fire London in the 17th-century. In 1720 Henry Overton advertised in the Daily Courant 'A New and Correct Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, &c. including the new Buildings now finished' on which appeared tables giving the rates of the hackney coachmen and watermen, 'very necessary for Persons who are often imposed on by these Fellows.' Overton's rivals followed suit issuing new maps with coachmen and watermen's rates (e.g. Joseph Smith, 1724), or squeezing in tables of fares on their existing plates (e .g. Thomas Bowles, 1723 and Thomas Taylor, 1720). Darton & Harvey in 1797 made room for upwards of 200 hackney coach fares on their 'New Pocket Map of London', and John Cary in 1782 upwards of 350 on his 'London, Westminster and Southwark Accurately Delineated.' The latter map had to be revised in 1785 to accommodate new fares just introduced by Act of Parliament.
In the 1890's W.J. Gordon recorded that out of 15,000 cabmen plying for hire in London approximately 2,000 were annually convicted for drunkeness, cruelty, wilful misbehaviour, loitering, obstruction, stopping on the wrong side of the road, leaving their cabs unattended, etc. 'Gentlemen in this class', observed Max Slesinger earlier, 'are not generally flattering in their expressions or conciliatory in their arguments, and the cheapest way of terminating a dispute is to pay and have done with the man.'
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
The cabriolet de place - 'cab' for short - was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth-century. At first it carried two people only, driver and passenger sitting side by side. Later the driver was relegated to a seat built on the off-side between the body of the vehicle and the wheel. In 1834 Joseph Aloysius Hansom, founder of the Builder magazine and the architect of Birmingham old Town Hall, patented a cab so designed that the driver sat on top. Curiously, Hansom's name became associated with a superior version of it for which he was not responsible. This was the invention of John Chapman, proprietor of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, who placed the driver's seat at the back.
Chapman's cab was instantly popular. Not so its driver. Readers of Dickens' Pick wick Papers will recall the fuss Mr and Mrs Raddle and Mrs Cluppings became embroiled in when calling upon friends in Goswell Street. In the first place their driver was cruel. ('The horse being troubled with a fly on his nose, the cabman humanely employed his leisure in lashing him on the head on the counter¬irritation principle.') In the second place they were deposited at the wrong door. In the third place the man was dishonest and Mr and Mrs Raddle were overcharged. 'Is there no legal scale of fares?' asked Max Schlesinger innocently in Saunterings in London. 'Of course there is', he himself replied, 'eight pence per mile. But who can tell how many miles he has gone in a cab?'
Mogg'scab-fare map, with extensions to the west and south, as issued in the 1870's. The Mogg family had been issuing maps at least since 1803 and had a special interest in maps for travellers. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
To rescue Mr and Mrs Raddle, Max Schlesinger, and tens of thousands like them F.G. Harding of 24 Cornhill in 1833 published The Arbitrator or Metropolitan Distance Map.' This gave distances in each street and square in miles and yards, provided tables of distances, and explained passengers' rights. In a note the publisher advertised that he would correctly compute disputed distances, wagers, and unmeasured ground: 'Any error discovered in this Map, or distance disputed, shall be remeasured, free of expense if found incorrect; but if otherwise, a charge of half-a-crown per mile will be made to the party requiring the same.' An improved version of the map was published by M.A. Leigh in the following year. On this, half mile measurements were indicated by red spots from east to west, and by blue spots from south to north. Later Leigh issued the map as a little booklet. The text in this was re-set as pages, the map itself forming an appendage.
In circa 1847 an even more complicated cab-fare map was issued, 'The Circuiter, or Distance Map of London', which was 'invented' (the publisher's word) by Joachim Friederichs of 19 Granby Street, Hampstead Road, St. Pancras, Middlesex. 'The monstrous im¬positions practised by Cab-Drivers', wrote Joachim Friederichs, 'have long been the subject of general complaints; of the plans hitherto suggested to remedy the situation - and they have been many - not one has been found to answer the purpose.' What Friederichs had produced was a plan of London covered in circles of half-mile diameter. By simply calculating the number of circles between one point and another one arrived at the approximate figure of the number of miles covered. In a leaflet Friederichs called upon cab proprietors to affix his map inside their cabs and at night to provide lamps so that passengers could consult them. Further editions and versions of the map appeared in circa 1850, 1851 (for visitors to the Great Exhibition), and circa 1862 (for visitors to the Inter¬national Exhibition). According to a note on the later editions, the London map constituted number one of a series of distance maps of the principal towns of the United Kingdom.
To protect the public, Joachim Friederichs invented what he called the 'Circuiteer System'. Each circle on his map measured half a mile in diameter. By noting the number of circles crossed in a journey the passenger was able to calculate his own fare and challenge the cabmen. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
The most prolific producer of cab-fare guides and maps, was Edward Mogg. Publisher of Paterson's Roads, railway guides, railway handbooks, and tables of waterman's fares, his special interest had always been transport. In 1844 he published an Omnibus Guide. In this appeared a list of the fares of the hackney coaches and cabs, 'by which the reader may, in the space of a minute, ascertain what is the legal charge of his journey in one of those carriages, and prevent the imposition, which, to the shame of the drivers of these vehicles, it is their universal custom to attempt.' It was small and could be 'carried in the recess of a fashionable coat without disfiguring the symmetry or encumbering the person of the most fastidious.' Prophesied The Times reviewer, 'This book should make cabmen honest.'
Better known, and certainly far easier to consult within the confines of a cab than Mogg's maps, was Mogg's Ten Thousand Cab Fares. This purple-backed volume first appeared in 1851. Mogg announced its publication in the columns of The Times whilst taking the opportunity to remind the public of his various London maps. The Times reviewer noticed this new volume too. 'Mr Mogg', he wrote, 'has just produced one of the most useful little volumes that has lately issued from the press.' Sponge, in Surtees' Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour, never travelled without Mogg in his pocket. It was, he told his fellow guests in a London hotel on a dreary wet morning, far more useful than 'Dizzy's Life of Bentinck. Australia and California, in his opinion, were quite unfit 'for sportsmen and men fond of their Moggs.'
'No More Disputes with Cabmenl', Simpkin & Marshall confidently promised in The Times when issuing their 'New Distance Map of London' in 1851. Their map, priced at a moderate six pence, was made available in 'an elegant case for the waistcoat pocket'. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
In due course Mogg provided not only cab-fare information and advice, but also a personal service. In the 1846 edition of the Omnibus Guide he recommended that passengers finding them¬selves in a whole series of difficult situations should repair to his office. 'The Editor cannot throw open his doors to answer gratuit¬ously upon application the interrogations of the idle or the curious', he warned, 'but will, in any case of doubt or dispute, furnish at very moderate charge, a correct certificate of distance, a document that will not infrequently be found to supersede the necessity of an application to magisterial authority ... ' Mogg did not restrict himself to London commissions. On the contrary, distances could be determined and ground measured by experienced surveyors in any part of the kingdom
To protect the public, Joachim Friederichs invented what he called the 'Circuiteer System'. Each circle on his map measured half a mile in diameter. By noting the number of circles crossed in a journey the passenger was able to calculate his own fare and challenge the cabmen. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
The most prolific producer of cab-fare guides and maps, was Edward Mogg. Publisher of Paterson's Roads, railway guides, railway handbooks, and tables of waterman's fares, his special interest had always been transport. In 1844 he published an Omnibus Guide. In this appeared a list of the fares of the hackney coaches and cabs, 'by which the reader may, in the space of a minute, ascertain what is the legal charge of his journey in one of those carriages, and prevent the imposition, which, to the shame of the drivers of these vehicles, it is their universal custom to attempt.' It was small and could be 'carried in the recess of a fashionable coat without disfiguring the symmetry or encumbering the person of the most fastidious.' Prophesied The Times reviewer, 'This book should make cabmen honest.'
Better known, and certainly far easier to consult within the confines of a cab than Mogg's maps, was Mogg's Ten Thousand Cab Fares. This purple-backed volume first appeared in 1851. Mogg announced its publication in the columns of The Times whilst taking the opportunity to remind the public of his various London maps. The Times reviewer noticed this new volume too. 'Mr Mogg', he wrote, 'has just produced one of the most useful little volumes that has lately issued from the press.' Sponge, in Surtees' Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour, never travelled without Mogg in his pocket. It was, he told his fellow guests in a London hotel on a dreary wet morning, far more useful than 'Dizzy's Life of Bentinck. Australia and California, in his opinion, were quite unfit 'for sportsmen and men fond of their Moggs.'
'No More Disputes with Cabmenl', Simpkin & Marshall confidently promised in The Times when issuing their 'New Distance Map of London' in 1851. Their map, priced at a moderate six pence, was made available in 'an elegant case for the waistcoat pocket'. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
In due course Mogg provided not only cab-fare information and advice, but also a personal service. In the 1846 edition of the Omnibus Guide he recommended that passengers finding them¬selves in a whole series of difficult situations should repair to his office. 'The Editor cannot throw open his doors to answer gratuit¬ously upon application the interrogations of the idle or the curious', he warned, 'but will, in any case of doubt or dispute, furnish at very moderate charge, a correct certificate of distance, a document that will not infrequently be found to supersede the necessity of an application to magisterial authority ... ' Mogg did not restrict himself to London commissions. On the contrary, distances could be determined and ground measured by experienced surveyors in any part of the kingdom
In 1845 Edward Mogg published a map entitled 'Modem London and its Environs.' This was initially intended for the Post Office London Directory. In 1856 his successor, William Mogg, adapted the map, in its top margin inserting a second title, 'Mogg's Cab¬Fare Map.' The map, issued in three different sizes and sometimes with variant titles, continued to appear until circa 1876 by which time it was grossly inaccurate.
Mogg had his rivals. William S. Orr & Co. produced a 'Cab¬Fare and Guide Map of London', engraved by Secker's Patent Process, which indicated cab stands and provided half-mile distances along thoroughfares. Under the heading, 'No More Disputes with Cabmen', Simpkin & Co. advertised 'an elegant waistcoat-pocket map of London, divided by triangles over the whole surface, the sides of the angles being equal to halfa mile, or, in cab value. equal to 4d.' The splendidly named Captain N. Scrope Shrapnel, late of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, published several editions of a volume of tables entitled Shrapnel's Stradametrical Survey of London con¬taining a record 14,800,000 mean distances!
Cover of Mogg's folded 'Postal¬District and Cab-Fare Map', 1858 edition. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
In 1853, in consequence of the most outrageous overcharging of foreign visitors in London for the Great Exhibition, the Govern¬ment passed the Act for the Better Regulation of Metropolitan Stage and Hackney Carriages. From that date the only legal fares were those based on distances measured by authority of the Commissioner of Police on a 'perambulator'. (One of these instruments survives at Bow Street Police Station.) Before the close of 1853 both the City and the Metropolitan Police had brought out official tables, a cruel blow to Mogg and his like. A cute waistcoat-pocket volume measuring one and a half inches by three and a half inches was published by Houlston & Wright in 1864. This contained an invaluable vocabulary for brave non¬fluent visitors ('What will you charge to drive me to -?'; 'It is too much, I will give you -') but only 29,520 fares, taken with permission from police calculations, and a sad little 'Chart of London' that is unlikely to be more than of marginal interest to the average map collector of today.
Captain N. Scrape Shrapnel's 'Stradametrical Survey' supplied a record 14,800,000 mean distances. In 1851 it was supple¬mented by a list of fares from all the principal streets of London to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
Further Reading :
NB. The author would like to thank Mr Donald Hodson who kindly supplied him with the Overton advertisement mentioned above. and an unidentified gentleman at a recent meeting of the Ephemera Society who drew his attention to Mr Sponge's enthusiasm for Mogg's Ten Thousand Cab Fares.
COPYRIGHT September 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Mogg had his rivals. William S. Orr & Co. produced a 'Cab¬Fare and Guide Map of London', engraved by Secker's Patent Process, which indicated cab stands and provided half-mile distances along thoroughfares. Under the heading, 'No More Disputes with Cabmen', Simpkin & Co. advertised 'an elegant waistcoat-pocket map of London, divided by triangles over the whole surface, the sides of the angles being equal to halfa mile, or, in cab value. equal to 4d.' The splendidly named Captain N. Scrope Shrapnel, late of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, published several editions of a volume of tables entitled Shrapnel's Stradametrical Survey of London con¬taining a record 14,800,000 mean distances!
Cover of Mogg's folded 'Postal¬District and Cab-Fare Map', 1858 edition. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
In 1853, in consequence of the most outrageous overcharging of foreign visitors in London for the Great Exhibition, the Govern¬ment passed the Act for the Better Regulation of Metropolitan Stage and Hackney Carriages. From that date the only legal fares were those based on distances measured by authority of the Commissioner of Police on a 'perambulator'. (One of these instruments survives at Bow Street Police Station.) Before the close of 1853 both the City and the Metropolitan Police had brought out official tables, a cruel blow to Mogg and his like. A cute waistcoat-pocket volume measuring one and a half inches by three and a half inches was published by Houlston & Wright in 1864. This contained an invaluable vocabulary for brave non¬fluent visitors ('What will you charge to drive me to -?'; 'It is too much, I will give you -') but only 29,520 fares, taken with permission from police calculations, and a sad little 'Chart of London' that is unlikely to be more than of marginal interest to the average map collector of today.
Captain N. Scrape Shrapnel's 'Stradametrical Survey' supplied a record 14,800,000 mean distances. In 1851 it was supple¬mented by a list of fares from all the principal streets of London to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
Further Reading :
- James Howgego, Printed Maps of London, circa 1553-1850 (Folkestone: William Dawson 1979).
- Ralph Hyde, Printed Maps of Victorian London, 1851-1900 (Folkestone: William Dawson 1975).
- W.I. Gordon. The florse-World of London (London: Religious Tract Society 1893).
- Henry Charles Moore. Omnibuses and Cabs: Their Origin and History (London: Chapman & Hall 1902).
- Max Schlesinger. Saunterings in and about London (London: Nathaniel Cooke 1853).
NB. The author would like to thank Mr Donald Hodson who kindly supplied him with the Overton advertisement mentioned above. and an unidentified gentleman at a recent meeting of the Ephemera Society who drew his attention to Mr Sponge's enthusiasm for Mogg's Ten Thousand Cab Fares.
COPYRIGHT September 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.